With the revolution in data communication devices, additional attention is being focused on interactive communications in order to increase the efficiency of the data transfer process. This transfer process for interactive data communication can occur over airways, phone lines and the like and also from a resident data storage device. Interactive data communication is being successfully used or planned for such business enterprises as banking and catalog merchanidising, for such entertainment enterprises as video games, and for educational purposes.
There are presently being introduced into various commercial locations, kiosks which are essentially used as merchandising tools that include a sales catalog recorded on laser disc. A customer can view the video images of the items in the catalog and then select and purchase items by interacting with the communication mechanism of the kiosk. The purchaser could selectively view the catalog by making selections from an index or menu provided on the video screen. Such interactive merchandising is also contemplated on a large scale over the commercial airways through the use of home television sets.
Besides video and computer games, and merchandising applications, interactive communications devices are used for educational purposes in that they are able, on a real time basis, to teach a subject and/or provide a number of questions and score the results of the answers. By scoring the results of the answers, the interactive device is able to formulate further textual or graphic materials and/or questions according to the level of accomplishment of the individual.
The present state of the art is such that improvements still need to be accomplished in these interactive communication devices to make these devices even more interactive. One such improvement includes eliminating all time when the video screen is blanked or displays an intermission image, also known as dead time, while a search or access function is carried out to provide a response appropriate for the user's input. An additional improvement includes providing a plurality of tracks, channels, data files, or individual information modules in a format which maximizes the amount of information stored and minimizes the access time. Further, to be most useful these improvements need to be accomplished on presently existing data storage and display devises such as, for example, video tape recorder, in order to take advantage of the large installed base of such devices.